Talk:Girl Meets Jexica/@comment-25009425-20160611085529/@comment-26999065-20160613040456
Actually, I think Cory’s point was that it was O.K. as a distraction, but not O.K. as a lifestyle – sitting around endlessly watching funny videos, updating your status on social media, talking in chat rooms or surfing message boards for hours and hours, or in general, not really learning anything or working toward something since you’re too busy entertaining yourself on the Internet. Watching T.V. 12 hours a day, goofing around, non-stop texting your friends on your phone, getting high every day, or anything that is more a lifestyle than an occasional distraction can become a problem. Homework, obviously, should not take a backseat or be ignored, and maybe showing them they don’t know the capital of Minnesota, or even know common knowledge things like if Polar Bears live only at the south pole and penguins only live at the north pole, or if it’s the other way around, it might wake the kids up so they might realize they should be spending more time educating themselves, too, and not just watching Charlie bite his brother’s finger, or other fun videos. The fact you call some knowledge “useless” is perhaps part of the problem. You never know what knowledge is useful or useless until an occasion arises where it might be useful. Until then, it might be unused, but you can’t really claim with certainty that is and will be forever useless. Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” Now maybe it’s useless to know that this was even said, or useless to know is was Louis Pasteur who said it, or useless to know who Louis Pasteur even was, or useless to know what that sentence even means, but I think not. Any one of those things could likely serve you and your future better than having seen Charlie biting his brother’s finger or having seen any one of countless dancing cat videos. In such a moment, you either know it, or you don’t, since by the time you can look it up, it’s often too late, or worse, because you didn’t know enough about what was happening right in front of you, you never even thought it would be worth looking up later in the first place. Opportunity knocked, and you either missed it since you weren't ready to open the door, or you didn't even hear it. So, you think Cory is just trying to make his students feel bad, like he enjoys that or something? Or maybe his job is to encourage them to learn, or even teach them to want to get an education and become self motivated, since one should never stop educating themselves – unless, of course, they’re too busy entertaining themselves to care about self improvement anymore and fell into the trap of always taking the path of least resistance by entertaining themselves with fluff, since that's quick, easy, and fun, instead of working harder and reading something more substantial that's more likely to be useful at some future time, particularly in a topic that already holds great interest for them and their future plans. In summation, Cory was fine when and if those things were a distraction, but warned them of the dangers of letting them become a lifestyle and a major drain on their time. It is often and generally said, do your work first - and after your work is done then what time remains you can go ahead and have fun. Too many, I fear, entertain themselves first, and either skip their education altogether since time ran out, or simply short change it when they discovered they no longer had enough time to do it all. Cory is just warning them to look out for that. I think that was the message of this episode - not that you should feel bad if or when you ocassionally entertain yourself. Did they cover the politics of communism thoroughly enough in a half hour program? Well, I’m going to say yes, at least sufficiently to get somebody interested enough to want to read more about it themselves so they can make a more informed choice (assuming they aren’t too busy watching videos of cats dancing, because I can pretty much guarantee you, the videos are more fun to watch than reading about communism or socialism or capitalism). BTW, I also don’t think a false choice was forced upon the students in that episode, nor do I think they ever claimed America was (totally) free, (completely) amazing, or (perfectly) lovely and (always) without flaw (like your tone seems to imply you thought that's eactly what they said or did). At most, I'd say it was just that it was better (which was implied when shown their choices and what they chose). Perhaps you would have chosen differently? As I recall, it was explained fairly well one system didn’t reward you as much for individual and superior merit and accomplishment since it deems everything of worth to be held in common, so those who didn’t excel or don’t do as well as you would get to benefit from your greater efforts, sacrifices, or accomplishments. This would have appeal to anyone who might naturally assume their own contributions will be less than others, or will likely always be below average – maybe because they know they will always entertain themselves first and work hard second, if at all – I dunno – so the less talented, less capable, or less motivated couldn’t help but benefit from that more socialistic type of system. But for anyone who will produce more than average, theoretically they get less in that system in order for everyone to be able to have the same, average amount. This is a simplification, of course, but it's hardly a lie. The students instead chose to reap the benefits from their own hard work and personal merits as individuals, perhaps thinking themselves above average in ability or willingness to work hard, or sacrifice more. You'd have to ask them why they made that choice, but it seems to me that is what they probably thought. Forced to choose after being told lies? I don't think they did that. Is there more to it? Certainly. Is there an upside to communism? Probably, but by and large, many, perhaps most, do not feel it to be bigger than than downside of communism. Is capitalism perfect? Hell no - but nobody lied and falsely said it was. But it's what the majority ususally choose, when given the Democratic choice instead of having it forced upon them. In fact, it has been said Democracy is the worst system of government in existence - except for all the others. Now, you can find out who said that, or watch some YouTube clip that amuses you instead. That's your choice.